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A Whig Representative in Congress from Massachusetts, 
IN REPLY TO MR. OGLE, 

UPON THE PROPOSITION OF THE LATTER TO STIKE OUT OF THE 

GENERAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 

A SMALL ITEM 
FOR ALTERATIONS AND REPAIRS OF THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE, &c. 



House of Representatives, April 1(5, 1840. 

When Mr. Lincoln obtained the floor, it was late in the evening, and, perceiv. 
ing that he was fatigued by the long sitting, it was proposed to adjourn the debate 
to the following day, but Mr. L. preferred Saying at once what- he had to say. He 
began by replying to some remarks of Mr. Ogle incidental to the main debate, tnk- 
ing occasion, in the course of his reply, to state certain particulars in which his 
remarks on ft former day had been mis-stated, probably because misunderstood, by 
the reporter ©f" the Globe newspaper. After disposing of this preliminary matter, 
Mr. L. proceeded t* the main subject before the Committee of the Whole upon 
which he spoke as follows : 

The member from Pennsylvania (said Mr. Lincoln) has insisted that the ten- 
dency of my remarks was lb justify the purchase of extravagant articles of furni- 
ture for the President's house. I repeat that I attempted no such justification, for 
1 had neither see* many of Unexceptionable articles nor inquired into their price. 
The argument, so for as it went, was against that false standard of economy winch 
measures the value of a thing by its cost, and decides upon its fitness with no reference 
whatever to the place or occasion for its use. The selection of furniture for such 
an establishment is matter of taste, about which minds may well differ ; and I said 
that while some would consider as most appropriate the rich and showy, others 
would prefer the plain and simple in fashion ; but that, for a mansion so spacious 
and S9 magnilicent as that which tht; nation had provided for the residence of the 
Chief Magistrate, the furniture, so far as I had seen, was neither too good nor too 
abundant. In this, I am not aware that I am alone among the Whigs, although I 
may not indeed be so happy as to meet the approving voice of all. But does such 
a difference imply dereliction of principle any where? The member suggests that 
my manner of life and habks of thinking may have given me a taste for articles 
of extravagance. What does he know of my habits of life? Sir, I can tell him 
they have been as honorably laborious, and as plainly republican, at least, as his 
own. Be it from necessity or choice, I am in no wise ignorant of those duties 
and offices which become the humblest station. I have been taught to toil as faith, 
fully, and to direct my thoughts as uprightly, as the least proud one here. One 
lesson more have I learned, that, in reference to the conduct of others, the tongue 
is an unruly organ, which an evil spirit may indulge, but which candor and a love 
of truth should at all times restrain. 

Mr. Chairman, it can only be necessary to review the remarks of the member 
to show the absurdity of their intended application. While he condemns the extra, 
vagance of the furniture, he is silent in respect to the appropriations through which 
it was procured. These appropriations are the grants of legislation by the repre- 
sentatives of the people. Whose was the work of constructing the costly mansion, 
and to what end was it resred ? More than forty years have now elapsed since 
the building was erected, at the charge of more than half a million qi' dollars to 
the nation, and from that time to the present it has been occupied in the manner 
in which it is now used. Congress, through all this intervening period, have 
voted the sums for furnishing the house, as they had previously done for its con- 
struction. If it were intended that the occupant should himself provide the fur. 
niture, wherefore these grants ? They commenced before the house was first taken 
possession of by the elder Adams, and the occasions for further supplies have since 
been voluntarily anticipated upon every succession to the Presidency. Besides, the 
spacious halls and Iof y ceilings of such a mansion require much which would be 
suited to no other residence. The reasonableness of compelling a President elect 



2 fltH 

to an outlay exceeding bis annual salary in the purchase of furniture for a house, , W§" L 
the occupancy of which he has not the election to refuse, and the tenancy of which, 
at the expiration of every four years, is at the disposal of the popular voice, with 
the certainty of the sacrifice upon the cost of the property in v.he attempt to dis- 
pose of it for any other place or use, cannot gravely be contended for. The credit 
of the country itself would suffer by such an arrangement ; for either ihe officer, 
by the absorption of his salary in the purchase of suitable and sufficient furniture 
for the house, would be deprived of the appointed means for his proper support in 
the office, or, by the neglert of such provision, would exhibit to the world, in his 
public station, the discreditable contrast of magnificent apartments meanly desti- 
tute or scantily furnished with whatever was appropriate to their occupation. It 
is a great mistake to suppose that these accommodations are for the personal relief, 
or to the private advantage of the President. He is made by them, and by the 
amplitude of his salary, emphatically the host of the nation. His guests are the 
guests of the people. The Executive mansion is the place for their reception. 
This house of the people is the fitting position in which, in the person of their 
Chief Magistrate, they receive from the representatives of other people the homage 
due to the sovereignty of this great Republic. Here ambassadors and ministers, 
the accredited messengers from the proudest and most powerful, the enlightened 
and most refined of the kingdoms of the earth, are received and entertained in the 
name of the hospitality of the nation ! And here, too, the courtesies of official sta- 
tion are exchanged between the high functionaries of the Government, and ex- 
tended to all classes of the citizens. The house, it is well known, is open to all, 
and is daily visited by many. Is it too much, then-, that the place and its appen- 
dages are beyond the requirements of private station? I venture the assertion^ 
that so far as the personal interest of the President is concerned, (I speak not of 
the present incumbent, but of whoever has been or may be in the office,} it would 
be preferable, far preferable, to him to occupy, at his own cost, a smaller and more 
humble dwelling, than to submit to the inconveniences and heavy exactions which 
' his required residence in the Executive mansion necessarily imposes. Sure I am 
that, in a pecuniary point of view, it would be much better for any incumbent in 
the office to receive ten thousand dollars, and furnish his own habitation, than with 
twenty-five thousand to maintain the st>le of living and public hospitality which 
every President in succession has deemed but in conformity with the design, as 
well as the liberality of present provisions. 

But the member complains of it as a monstrous abuse, that the President of the 
United States, in addition to hid salary, and the use of a furnished house, should 
have the grounds about the latter kept in order at the public expense. He says 
the President ought to furnish his own house and employ his own gardener, as his 
salary is amply sufficient.' I have only to add to what I have before said on this 
subject, that such has not been the judgment or the pleasure of the people. For 
foity years, their representatives sitting in these halls, without division in senti- 
ment or vote, have provided the house, supplied the furniture, directed the enclosure 
and improvement of the grounds, and required their occupation by the Chief Ma- 
gistrate. The salary may be sufficient for the officer. On this point I take no 
issue with the member. So may the per diem of eight dollars be ample compen- 
sation for a representative in Congress. But does the scrupulous member himself 
receive nothing more? I demand of him to say if eight dollars a day is not ahun- 
dant recompense for the value of his labors here ; and yet, does he keep his hands 
clean from all the perquisites of place? Has he no Government stationery in his 
room? no Congressional penknife of costly extravagance at this very moment in 
his pocket? Has he never ordered to his lodgings the beautiful "embossed and 
laccedged note paper" and "fancy sealing wax," for the u>e of any of his family, 
or received to his own use a distributive share of the "spoils," in costly editions 
of books printed at the expense of the Treasury? Sir, let me not be misunderstood. 
I do not condemn him in this, for the legislation of the House allows it. Hut 1 say 
he receives these things by a more questionable authority than does the President 
of the Uni'ed States the accommodations which are made the burden of his com- 
iliint When, therefore, the member goes to his constituents and to mine with 
ihs objections that the Chief Magistrate of the nation is (in his most courteous 



language) robbing and cheating the people in receiving, under an appropriation of 
Congress, the use of a furnished house and the care of a garden, in addition to his 
salary, !et him, at the same time, honestly admit, that to his own pay he adds, at 
the public charge, perquisites of considerable value, and which a colleague of his, 
[Mr. Petriken,] on another occasion, pronou'^ced, although I think by gross ex. 
aggeration, equal in amount to the per diem. Sir, the President is much rather to 
be justified in the use of his furnished lodgings than the member in the enjoyment 
of his perquisites ; for the latter may be refused, while the former, consistently with 
the existing arrangements of the Government, cannot be declined. 

I regret, Mr. Chairman, that it is necessary for me to pursue this ungrateful sub- 
ject lurlher. I fear, in doing it, I shall exhaust the patience of the committee. 
But the member cavils with me for sustaining the appropriation for the salary of 
the gardener at the President's square. In my remarks, on a former day, to which 
he excepts, 1 said that this had been a usual appropriation for many years, and 
that I saw no new reason, at this time, for its discontinuance. I have now in my 
hand a certificate from the Commissioner of the Public Buildings, showing that 
the gardener, the very same individual, with the same character of service, and at 
the same rate of compensation, has been in the employ of the Government for the 
continuous period of fifteen years, having been first engaged in 1825. I will read 
the certificate here, as notice that 1 shall offer it on the trial of the issue between 
the member and myself before my constituents: 

" Office of the Commissioner of Public Buildings. 

"It appears from the books of this office that John Ousley was appointed gar- 
dener at the President's square on the 1st of Augu.-t, 1825, at a regular salary of 
four hundred and fifty dollars per annum for his services. He has received that 
aalarv quarterlv, up to the 31st December, 1839, and is at this time the gardener 
at the President's square. W. NOLAND." 

In respect to the grounds about the President's house, they, in common with 
those around the Capitol, are, at all times, open to the public. They have been 
laid out and ornamented at the public charge, and if not now cared for by Con- 
gress, will soon become a neglected and un ightly waste. The President has no 
motive to the expense of their improvement. Like the spacious walks and culti- 
vated borders of the beautiful enclosure within which we are here situated, they 
are for the enjoyment of the people, and in the frequency of resort to them, and the 
freedom with which they are used, it is daily seen how little they are regarded as 
private. They are, indeed, accessible to all, and I would recommend to the mem- 
ber himself, at some pleasant eventide, to repair to this quiet retreat, and indulge in 
the meditation to winch it invites. 

Again : It is made a heinous offence in me that, in addition to all which is now 
within and about the House, I gave notice that the committee of which I am a 
member would propose, at the present session, a small appropriation for one of the- 
rooms most frequently in use, and which is now entirely destitute of furniture. 
The bill which contains that appropriation has since been reported from the com 
mittee, and gives a few hundred dollars for the purchase of plain furniture, of. 
American manufacture, for the ante-room to the President's parlor. The member 
objects that this is altogether unnecessary, and the reason he assigns for this opi- 
nion is as singular as the objection is extraordinary in itself. "In the ante-rooms 
of princes," says the member, ''visiters are kept standing until they are admitted 
to an audience." When I addressed this committee, on a former day, I described 
this room as the apartment into which visiters, whether for ceremony or business, 
were shown previous to their introduction to the President. Here they dispose of 
their over garments, in all weather and seasons, and wait v if need be, the previous 
engagements of the President; and in this room there is not the accommodation 
of a mirror, a table, or a chair. Whatever may be the forms observed in the courts, 
of Europe, or the habit of princes in the treatment of their subjects — of which I 
profess to be but poorly advised — it strikes me as hardly becoming that they should 
be quoted in Republican Ameiica^as fit rules to be adopted for the regulation of 
intercourse between free, independent, enlightened citizens, and their elective offi- 
cers. The courts of Europe, forsooth ! And such is the authority relied on by 
this Whig from Pennsylvania for denying a chair to his constituents and mine, in 



the very house provided by the people for their own honor, and in excuse for de. 
nouncing fne for seeking to make provision for their more suitable accommodation. 
Because the princes of Europe keep their vassals in servile waiting upon their 
pleasure, is that a reason why a R^ublican citizen of the United States should 
lack the comfort of a seat, while the President may be called from his table or his 
study to offer him those courtesies to which every freeman is here entitled? It is 
not thus my Democracy teaches. The free citizens of a Republic are themselves 
sovereigns, and the measure of their right and the respect which is their due are 
not to be looked for in the conventional etiquette of courts, nor are they the boon 
of princes. If the constituents of the member shall visit Washington, and desire 
an introduction to the Chief Magistrate, and he dare trust himself to accompany 
them to the " White House," I venture to say he will be made sensible to the defi- 
ciency which the committee propose to supply ; a?.d whatever may be his own 
views of subserviency to the customs of Europe, the indignant expression of reproof 
which he would hear from those to whom he should offer such an excuse for any 
want they might witness, would bring conviction to his mind that this was not the 
country of princes. What ! himself a Whig, and propose a conformity to the man- 
ners and customs of aristocratic power — aping the fashions of a royal court? 
Himself professing to be a Republican, and condemn that which respect for a Re- 
publican people demands? Sir, I repeat, this is a poor concern to be made the 
occasion of so much clamor. It hardly becomes the member, for such cause, to 
read homilies upon political consistency to others. The inducement to his gratu- 
itous labors may be found in the narrowness of his own views, rather than in a 
default of fidelity elsewhere. He mistakes a small rhtftler of mere business expe- 
diency for a great question of principle. Mr. Chair nan, lest, from the vehemence 
of his denunciation, any should be led to suppose an abandonment of party by me, 
I will even volunteer a confession of faith ; and I here profess, testify, and declare, 
that I am no less a Whig than if I had never seen the Executive mansion ; ay, 
that I am as much to be confided in for steadfast opposition to the present Arlmi. 
nistration as though, like the member, I had the nev -born zeal of a convert from 
Jacksonism ! Sir, I am as thoroughly opposed to Mr. Van Buren as the member 
was devoted, at one time, to his " illustrious predecessor!" I regard the policy 
and leading measures of the Adminis ration as hostile to the best interests of the 
people, and destructive of the prosperity of the country ; and, as such, from the 
first, I have been their uncompromising opponent, and to the utmost of my power 
shall continue to resist them. But in this I have not, nor shall I demean myself, 
by indulging in hard names and coarse invectives ag; inst the high officers of Go- 
vernment. 

Mr. Chairman, I might now rest. It is not my in ention to enter into any de- 
fence of the propriety of the particular appropriations which, from time to time, 
have been made for the accommodation of the Chief Magistrate of the nation. 
Much less would I attempt a vindication of the prodigal expenditures of the present 
Administration. They have been extravagant and wasteful enough, in all con- 
science, ar;d furnish an exhaustless theme for the severest animadversion. When 
I had the honor of addressing the committee,, on a foi mer day, I distinctly present- 
ed, in connection with the subject now under discuss-on, some of the most crying 
abuses, in the construction of the public edifices in rhis city, the deceptive esti- 
mates, and irreponsible profligate management of those who had direction of the 
work, and, as I deemed, the wanton and lawless diversion of funds by the Execu- 
tive, from other and more imporlant object?, to the r completion. At the proper 
time, and on a suitable occasion, I shall be as prompt as another to take to task the 
Administration for any and all other of their misdoings. 

There was one remark of the member from Pennsylvania made and dwelt upon 
with apparent complacency, so extraordinary in itself, (I was about to say, so atro- 
cious, to my mind, in the only application which can possibly be given to it,) that 
I cannot permit it to pass unnoticed. In referring to the furniture and cultivation 
of the grounds in the use of the President, the member said, "the receiver was as 
bad as the other man." Sir, Ave all know the words of the adage — " the re- 
ceiver is as bad as the theif." And who is the receiver, and who the thief? From 
the days of Washington, through a long succession of illustrious men, every Presi- 



dent of the United States, including the elder Adams, Jeffernon, Madison, Monroe, 
J. Q. Adams, Jackson, and the present incumbent, have received the benefit of a 
similar provision in their official station. The house, the furniture, the garden, 
and the cultivated grounds have been alike jugL enjoj riieht of each, and at public 
charge. It may be instructive to this committee to be informed of the grants of 
Congress for some of these objects, during the several period* of the respective 
administrations. I have now before me a statement, collated from official docu- 
ments, of appropriations for the purchase of furniture For each Presidential term, 
after the removal of the Seat of Government to the Federal city. 

By a law of the 2d of March, 1797, just previous to the commencement of the 
administration of the elder Adams, Congress made the following appropriation : 

Proceeds of sale of old furniture, and so much in addition thereto, as the Presi- 
dent may judge necessary, not exceeding $'4,000. 

During the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, the appropriations amounted to 
$29,000. 

Iii that of Mr. Madison to $28,000. 

It was in this period that the house was sacked by the British upon their incur- 
sion into Washington during the war, and the furniture, which from the beginning, 
had cost the nation upwards of seventy thousand dollars, was wholly destroyed. 

After the repair of the House, in the y»»rs 1817 and 1813, during the adminis- 
tration of Mr. Monroe, the records show appropriations for refurnishing it to the 
aggregate amount of $50,000. » 

In the administration of Mr. John Q. Adams, the grants amounted to $'20,00&\ 

In that of General Jackson to $39,000; and 

In that of Mr. Van Buren, they have been, to this time, $20,000. 

The statement from which I read gives the date of each law, and the precise ap- 
propriation under it. 

Such, Mr. Chairman, are the sums — whether lavish or not, I shall not stop to 
consider — which, from time to time, have been voted by Congress; and these are 
the '"receivers" to whom the member refers — -men who. for accepting the accom- 
modations provided by law for the office which they sustained, are charged with 
•*' robbing the Treasury and fleecing the People." These are they of whom it is 
said " the receiver is as bad as the thief!" The elder Adams, the dauntless asser- 
ter of American freedom; Jefferson, the co. patriot of Adams, the draughtsman of 
the Declaration of Independence, the great apostle of liberty, the very chief of 
Democrats ; Madison, the champion of the Constitution, the patriot statesman and 
sage ; Monroe, the soldier of the Revolution, the brave defender of the Republic 
in the first war, the inflexible and uncompromising advocate of national honor, 
rights, and interests in the last ; these are they who received the appropriations, 
and to whom tj»e adage is applied. Names deathless in fame, immortal in the his- 
tory of their country's renown ! My venerated colleague, too, the learned civilian 
the accomplished diplomatist, the incorrupfeble magistrate, he who on this floor is 
the most fearless and faithful of the servants of the people, together with the Hero 
•of New Orleans, " the greatest and the best," and the more humble '■ follower in 
the footsteps" — they also are wishin the obloquy of the same reproach. 

And who is the thief? The Congress of the United States, the Representatives 
r»f the people, in succession, through a series of more than forty years. These 
are the men who, by making the appropriations, in the sentiment of the member 
from Pennsylvania, plundered the Treasury and robbed their constituents! 
Is there an individual within the sound of my voice whose cheek does not burn 
with indignation at the bare recital of the charge ? Where were the sleepless sen- 
tinels of the people's rights, the dragon guardians of the public chests, when these 
spoilers robbed it of its treasure ? Was no arm raised for its protection ? Search 
the journals of either House of Congress, and neither voice nor vote is found 
against one of those appropriations. If they deserve the character now attempted 
to be given them, how happens it that in forty years there has been no resistance 
to their passage ? How happens it, indeed, that, in the last Congress, of which 
this Pennsylvanian, of more than Spartan virtue, was a member, no opposition was 
offered to grants precisely similar to those contained in the present bill ? They 
passed without objection then. 



o 

[Mb. Ogle. No; a member near me says he objected.] 

Mr. Lincoln. Who is ihe man? I heard of no dissentient. If any had the 
virtue, at that time, to think it w ong, he had not the courage to make it known. 
Where is the recorded Tote at a caJJ even for a division upon the question. Sir, 
the truth is, such grants were tlrroght proper upon the original consideration of 
them, and subsequently they have been of course and usual. It the people will no 
longer approve them, Congress must refer back, by legislation, to their occasion ; 
dispose of the " White House ;" send the furniture to auction ; and leave the Presi- 
dent to provide for himself his place of residence and means of accommodations. 
When this shall appear to be the judgment of the people, I shall be found among 
the lest to withstand their will. 

There is another topic upon which the member has harped loud and long — the 
stvle and fashion of the articles which have been purchased under the appropria- 
tions. In my imperfectly reported remarks, to which the member so freely refers 
for a text to his folio annotations, with the reading of which, for hours, he has 
occupied the time of this committee, not a single article was particularly specified 
or justified bv me, Wherefore, then, does he attempted to make me responsible 
for such as he has chosen to designate, and for the extravagance of which, upon 
the fidelity of his description only, he asks a sentence of condensation 1 I did say, 
however, generally, I have already to-day repeated, and I now reiterate, that to a 
casual observer the furniture appears neither too rich nor too abundant for the 
size and magnificence of the mansion, nor too good for the use of the first repre- 
sentative officer of a free and sovereign; people. But of this I make no matter of 
personal controversy with the member. I understand him now to say that he has 
never been at the house. How well, then, it may comport with a becoming mod- 
esty, or sense of justice even, to denounce unseen that which prudent and honora- 
ble men have sanciioned, I leave for others to consider. He condemns the articles 
as the exhibition of aristocratic pride and splendor. Well, sir, I defend not the 
purchase of these articles, but take my position behind the character of those by 
whose authority they were procured. I insist that whatever fault has been com- 
mitted is with those who furnished the means of such extravagance — if extrava- 
gance there be — with the Representatives of the people, who, again and again, un- 
der every Administration, with a full knowledge of the manner in which the money 
would be expended, have voted the appropriations without restriction or qualifica- 
tion. 1 have shown that whatever reproach attaches to the procurement and use 
of such furniture has been incurred by the head of each successive Administration. 
If, indeed, the fashion of the House be a display of regal splendor, stern and sound 
Republicans have been betrayed into this foolish error. 

Thomas Jeffeison was once accounted a plain and unpretending Democrat,, 
and passed, in his dav, for an unostentatious Chief Magistrate, and yet we have 
seen that the sum of $29, 000 was expended for furniture during the period of his 
Presidency ; and tins, too, in addition to the $14,000 previously granted to his 
immediate predecessor. The purity and Republican simplicity of Mr. Madison's 
life and manners have never, to this time, been questioned ; yet to the $43,000 be- 
fore appropriated, $23,000 more were added to the royal pageantry in the eight 
ye*rs of his Administration. Col. Monroe, too, was he a vainglorious aristocrat?' 
He has the credit, in history, at least, of having resisted to blood, in the Revoru- 
• tionary conflict, a Government of royal pride and arrogance, and by a life devoted 
o his country, contributed as largely as any other to the establishment and support 
■of institutions of equal rights and political equality; yet, in his administration, a 
oreater expenditure was made in re-furnishing the house, after the late war, than 
under all his predecessors. What Bay you, Mr. Chairman, of my venerable col- 
-Jefvgae ? Is he not a good Whig in principal, and a plain Republican in manners ? 
And yet he received what benefit resulted from the appropriation of $20,000, du- 
ring the four years of his Presidency, added to the large expenditure made by Col. 
Monroe. But think you my honorable colleague would have consented to this, 
with a consciousness that it was intended for mere empty display ? or that, by 
doing it, in the language of the member, he was robbing the Treasury and fleecing 
the people 1 Sir, my colleague has no occasion to make professions of honesty or 
respect for the rights of the people, to entitle his course of official action to the 



■confidence due to eminent public services and distinguished private tiriue. Of all 
men, he would be the last to indulge in matters of ostentation and rain show. 

[Mit. Ooi.e. I deny thftt either Adams or Monroe ever had audi trumpery a» 
Van Buren.] ^«fcto 

Mr. Lincoln. And I undertake to sayn^tTduring the Presidency of Mr. 
Monroe*, more " trumpery," as the member is pleased to term it, was carried into 
the Presidential mansion, than under every other Administration, to this time, ^ut 
together. 

Mr. Chairman, it is not my wish to enter at all into this subject. But upon the 
denial of the member now, I feel bound to refer the committee to the fact, apparent 
upon the bills, ihat many of the Very articles which have been pointed out as most 
objectionable, were purchased from the appropriation of $50,000 i:i the time of 
Mr. Monroe. In point of truth, they were procured by him, and for his own ac- 
count, while Minister in France, and were afterwards taken for the Government, 
by appraisal, on his accession to the chair of State. Ay, sir, this famous golden 
plateau, and most of these gold spoons, and knifes, and forks, and vases* which 
have so bewildered the imagination of the member, «nd shocked the simple rirtue 
of his heart, were the purchase of the Republican Monroe ! And in application 
to these even, there is a lesson of infancy, which may profitabl • be remembered, 
that "all is not gold which glitters ;" for, if I am not greatly misinformed, the pla- 
teau, and spoons, and knives, and forks, are but silver gilded, and the golden vases 
but china painted! 

But the monstrous extravagance of such things! exclaims the member. What 
is done with the vast amount of these appropriations? he inquires. Sir, I hare 
not peeped into the windows of the palace, or moused through the kitchen or the gar- 
ret, to see whether the people have got their money's worth in the purchase whi^h 
nave been made. This is not the province of the committee of which I am a mem- 
ber ; nor, if it were, would I perform the serve. Does it require, he asks, such 
krge amounts for mere plain and necessary furniture? No, sir, no ; nor is it to 
be supposed that, by the large appropriations which have been made from time to 
time, Congress could intend the purchases should be so restricted. Simple, indeed, 
must he be (I had almost said a fool) who could imagine that, in the authwrit? of 
an outlay of -fifty thousand dollars, as in the case of Mr. Monroe, or of twenty- 
thousand dollars, as in the administration of Mr. Adams, or thirty thousand, a* >n 
that of General Jackson, or twenty thousand for Mr. Van Buren, the ornamental 
was to be excluded. The schedules which the member exhibits may well excite his 
wonder. 1 know nothing of their fidelity. But the carpets and the curtains, the 
candlesticks and the candelabras, the ottomans and the divans, the tables, mahoga- 
ny and marble, the tabourets (tabby cats, in the member's nomenclature) ware all 
doubtless in the estimates. They may be names of startling sound to an unprac- 
tised ear, but they are things of use and no uncommon appearance in many a pri- 
vate parlor. ■ 

One thing, above all, seems to have created amazement with the member. He 
lias found, in his manly and dignified research, an invoice of "cups and saucers," 
•which were in the closets of Mr. Adams ; and he cries out with astonishment at 
their number. What the need, he demands, of so many dozens of cups and saucers? 
Sir, I will tell the member. They were wanted for a purpose which he could 
never conjecture — the hospitable entertainment of visiters and friends. They 
were a means, among others, of offering the courtesies of place to those who call- 
ed upon the President as the Representative of the people. They were used for 
the refreshment of the nation's guests. To such as witnessed the noble hospitality 
of my honorable colleague, in his high official station, it need not be told how en- 
tirely the accommodations of the house were made but mere appliances to his per- 
sonal liberality. Sir, I advise the member to study better the manners of the past 
before he prescribes a rule of conduct for the future. The public residence of the 
President of the United States has been, and should ever continue, the seat of a 
generous hospitality; and representing as I do a free-hearted and liberal coristitii-* 
ency, the incumbent in office, whoever he may be, shall never find in my vote an 
excuse for its neglect. If General Harrison shall succeed to the occupancy of the 
White House, as I trust he may, and which I shall labor as zealously as any one 



» 

to effect, my speech shall furnish no argument for leaving him there with only the 
worn out and c^st-off furniture of his predeceosor. 

Mr. Chairman, I thank the member that he has left us in no noubt of the cause 
of his g'fievous complaints in thig^Sjiatters. I understand him to say that he was 
one of /hose who joined in the n^MBmis East Room clamor 5 ami by reason of the 
impa'.gd extravagance of my venerable colleague, in the purchase of a billiard table, 
sorr^ a CU es and chessmen, at the cost of a few dollars, assisted in displacing one 
Administration, which taxed the Treasury but twelve millions a year, to introduce 
a dvnasty which now requires more than thrice-told that amount for its annual ex- 
penditure. If for such cause he would hurl from place one of the most pure and 
faithful patriots that ever served the country, there can be no surprise at the weap. 
ons he has chosen with which to assail the men now in power. The member once 
belonged to the school of these same political reformers, and much I fear, in the 
fault of his early lessons, gives less heed, at this time, to the alarming principles 
and flagrant misdoings of a vicious Administration, than personal attention to a 
bmicroscopic search for minor defects in the boastful economy of its disbursements. 
Sir, I solemnly protest against these things being brought into the politics of the 
day. They can be made to have no just or proper bearing there. It may seem to 
us that the salary of the President is too high, and the house *nd its appendages 
too splendid and eostly ; but they were the appointments of wiser and better men? 
th*n ourselves, in the purer d^ivs of the Republic, and they hate been sustained 1 
and enjoyed as the measure of every Administration, and in turn by all parties.. 
For myself, I am free to confess that, were they at this time original provisions, 
with present experience, I should he the advocate of neither. But while the salary 
continues *nd the house remains, I will not consent that the President shall hoard 
the one or live like a recluse and niggard in the other. 

But one word more, Mr. Chairman, and I have done. If, in sustaining the ap- 
propriations to which exceptions have been taken, I differ in judgment from others, 
it is because I regard the original design of the Government in the arrangement 
which requires them, and not that I advocate extravagant grants, or have the slight- 
est reference to the benefit of their recipient. Of the particular manner m which 
the money has been expended, I pretend to know nothing, and I have said nothing. 
"With Mr. Van Buren personally, I have nought to do. Upon his temper and bear- 
ing, his habits and manner of living, in private, and with those of bis family,, 
-whether at home or at the Court of Queen Victoria, the member may as freely des- 
cant as his tnste shall prompt, or the patience of others bear, without reply or heed 
from me. To Mr. Van Buren politically, and to his Administration, I am opposed 
upon other, and, I trust, higher grounds than those which are taken in the speech of 
the member — upon the broad grounds of constitutional principles, national inter- 
ests, and the people's rights ; and I shall continue that opposition until Lt shall 
end in the restoration of the supremacy of law and representative government 
over Executive usurpation and power. 

Mr. Chairman, for the indulgence of the committee in their kind attention to 
what I have had to say, I pray leava to return my sincere thanks. For detaining 
them,*fter the fatigues of a long sitting, to so late an hour ia the evening, I owe 
them an humble apology. 

OGLE, THE FEDERAL SCULLION. 

This individual was published by his own brother, Alexander Ogle, Jr., a few 
day* since, as "a liar, a scoundrel, and not worthy of truth.'''' 

the card, in which Mr. A. Ogle thus publicly "defined" the character of the author 
of the modern "federal omnibus of lies," was published in the Somerset Whig, and 
the publishers of that paper were prosecuted for a libel by the veritable Ogle him- 
self. *Vhen the trial came on, the editors of the Whig proved that every word 
stated in the card was true; that Charles Ogle did write a renunciation of masonry, 
forge his brother's name to it, and publish it in a federal newspaper in Somerset, 
accompanied with a flattering eulogy upon his brother's character. The brother, 
justly incensed at this fraud upon him and upon the public, denounced him in the 
terms above quoted. 

' Such (says the Ohio Statesman, from which we obtain these facts,) is Charley 
Ogle, the leader sad factotum of Harrisonism and 'coon skins!' 



